NLCInterchange

Newsletter
of the
Nebraska
Library
Commission
Talking Book
& Braille
Service

Catch Interchange Via Podcast

For a more complete description of podcasting and directions for subscribing to the podcast, or for information about the other online editions of Interchange, go to nlc.nebraska.gov/tbbs/interchangeoptions.aspx.

Interchange continues to be available on cassette, and in large print and Braille for direct mailing to borrowers. To change the format in which you receive Interchange, contact your Readers Advisor.

Readers of Western Fiction and Non-Fiction, Take Note

Subscribers to the National Library Service-produced cassette magazine True West will automatically be subscribed to Cowboys and Indians. True West is a monthly magazine of non-fiction articles about the Old West written by historians and western buffs.

Web Site for Kids

Library of Congress / National Library Service has launched Kids Zone, a web page for children.  The site offers an online search engine to locate children's books, including Newbery Medal, Coretta Scott King, and other award winners.  Kids Zone also lists books in popular series such the Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, and Redwall Abbey.  Reach Kids Zone through the National Library Service homepage or use www.loc.gov/nls/children/index.html to enter Kids Zone directly.

One False Move
RC 970
by Alex Kava
read by Carol Yoakum
2 cassettes

Capital City
RC 985
by Mari Sandoz
read by Alice Timm
3 cassettes

First published in the dark days of 1939, this novel portrays working people trapped in the Great Depression on the Plains.  The author claims to have researched ten Midwestern capitals in order to present a composite picture of their characters, daily life, and political struggles.  Contains some strong language.

Pepper Keane, a top private eye, investigates the murder of three mathematicians.  In this off-beat murder mystery that is both violent and hilarious, Keane's pursuit of leads takes him through mathematics, economics, and philosophy.  Some violence and some strong language.

Iowa cartoonist lovingly remembers boyhood memories of Christmas on the farm.

Four siblings tell of growing up on a family farm in south central Nebraska between the world wars.  They describe day-to-day activities at home, church,  and school.  They lived close to the land and to its creatures, close to the weather and to the progression of the seasons.

A United States Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner and a lifelong editor and publisher offer practical wisdom that is upbeat and accessible to beginning writers.  With a focus on the work itself, how to get started and how to keep going, the authors offer advice in brief, user-friendly chapters on sensory details, work environment, creating suspense, revising, and taking criticism.

Free Cassette Magazines For Fall Reading

For many Nebraskans, the harvest season brings back memories of family, and of cooking and baking. Taste of Home, a bimonthly magazine produced by Associated Services for the Blind, offers satisfying, easy-to-prepare recipes that come from the readers themselves. Featured are recipes for main dishes, desserts, and snacks-all made using standard utensils and ingredients you are likely to have on hand.

Another magazine for homemakers, Family Circle, also produced by Associated Services for the Blind, offers health and beauty tips, recipes for family meals, and advice for homemakers and home decorating. This magazine is issued 15 times per year.

Redbook, a monthly magazine produced by the Florida Regional Library, offers short stories, advice on child rearing and family relations, home decorating ideas, and fashion and beauty tips.

Living Well, a quarterly published by the Lincoln Area Agency on Aging and recorded in our own studios, features general topics, programs, issues, and activities concerning the older population, their families, and community organizations.

Also recorded in our studios, Grit has served as America's family magazine since 1882 by taking a positive approach to life.  Beginning in September, Grit is being published bimonthly rather than monthly.

If fall weather means home or car maintenance, you might like Popular Mechanics, a monthly magazine which offers articles on auto mechanics, woodworking, electronics, and even photography. Family Handyman, published ten times a year, covers home remodeling, repair and maintenance, and energy efficiency. Both magazines are produced by Associated Services for the Blind.

To Nebraskans, fall also means football. Dedicated to University of Nebraska athletics, Big Red Report emphasizes football but attempts to cover the wide range of sports that are part of the university's athletic program. Published ten times a year, it is recorded in our own studios.

To sign up for these free cassette magazines, please use the order form on page 7 or call your Readers Advisor.

Great Books about Art and Artists

October is Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month, an effort to call attention to the value of making art accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired. This initiative, organized by Art Education for the Blind, has involved museums and libraries across the United States and in other countries.  Here are some wonderful books, fiction and nonfiction, about the world of art.

Fortyish Faith Crowell paints "faux" finishes and illusory images on furniture and walls for wealthy New York clients.  She receives a request from aging Frances Griffin to redo the ballroom built for her daughter years before.  But Faith soon realizes that her artistic talent is not the real reason she has been commissioned.  Her presence has something to do with Frances's daughter, who was murdered as a young woman.  Some strong language.

RC 43463  Artists in Crime, by Ngaio Marsh

Scotland Yard detective Roderick Alleyn must turn his interest in the feisty artist, Agatha Troy, from personal to professional.  At Troy's artists' colony, a model is murdered, and Alleyn is called in to investigate.  Suspects abound, including the lovely but aloof Troy.

RC 46414  Chuck Close, Up Close, by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan

This biography of the portrait artist tells about his undiagnosed childhood problems with dyslexia and learning disabilities, when art was the only subject he enjoyed.  He was a famous painter in the 1960s, but was paralyzed from the neck down in 1988.  The doctors said his career was over, but Close is painting again.  For grades 4-7.

RC 46563  Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Artist, by Jennifer Fisher Bryant

Presents biographical details and the artistic development of the French painter and poster designer.  Suffering from broken legs as a teenager, Henri was forced to limit his physical activities, but he continued to draw.  As an adult, he enjoyed the nighttime entertainments of Paris and often used them as the subject of his painting.  For junior and senior high readers.

RC 46802  Everybody Was So Young:  Gerald and Sara Murphy, a Lost Generation Love Story, by Amanda Vaill

The saga of a New York society couple, Gerald and Sara Murphy, who moved to France in the 1920s. Gerald's interest in painting brought them into contact with artists and writers of the time, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Pablo Picasso.  In later years, personal tragedy and financial setbacks struck the Murphys, but their love endured.  Bestseller.

RC 47208  True Colors:  the Real Life of the Art World, by Anthony Haden-Guest

Traces the New York art scene from the auction of the famous Scull contemporary art collection in 1973 to the mid 1990s.  Describes how the Scull sale triggered a steadily escalating worldwide demand for art made after World War II.  Analyzes the different art worlds:  one of working artists and one of dealers, collectors, and curators.

RC 48234  N. C. Wyeth:  a Biography, by David Michaelis

Life of the artist whose fame largely rests on his drawings for the Scribners Illustrated Classics series.  Wyeth studied under illustrator Howard Pyle.  Describes his children and grandchildren, many of whom continued the family legacy and became artists in their own right.

RC 50258  Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier

A fictional account of how the seventeenth-century artist Vermeer came to paint a portrait of a young woman wearing a pearl earring.  When sixteen-year-old Griet, a Protestant, becomes a maid in Vermeer's Catholic household, the drudgery of her duties is offset by working in the artist's studio.  Some descriptions of sex.  Bestseller.

RC 53802  The Agony and the Ecstasy: a Biographical Novel of Michelangelo, by Irving Stone

Traces the Renaissance artist Michelangelo's life and career from his youthful apprenticeships to the painter Ghirlandaio and the sculptor Bertoldo to his celebrated years as a master artist.

RC 55899  Lust for Life, by Irving Stone

Fictional biography of the passionate and beleaguered Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890).  Based on the three volumes of van Gogh's letters to his brother, Theo.  Basis for an Academy Award-winning movie.

Here are some outstanding books recorded in our studios in past years that are still great for reading.  To order, please check the box next to the RC number and return this page to the Talking Book and Braille Service, or contact your Readers Advisor.

q RC 601  Shifting Winds:  Nebraska's Weather, by Betty Stevens
1 cassette                      Weather

q RC 602  Nebraska Moments:  Glimpses of Nebraska's Past, by Donald R. Hickey
2 cassettes       Nebraska history

q RC 603  Andy: A Biography of a Boy with Down's Syndrome, by Peggy H. Benjamin
1 cassette       Biography

q RC 604  Seems Like Old Times:  The Story of  the Midwest's Big Bands, by Loren B. Belker
1 cassette       Midwest history.  Contains some descriptions of sex.

q RC 607  Perkey's Nebraska Place-Names, by Elton A. Perkey
4 cassettes Nebraska history

q RC 610  Sports Illustrated Presents:  That Championship Season; Nebraska 1994, by Sports Illustrated
1 cassette                      Football

q RC 611  Source of Thunder:  The Biography of a California Condor, by Roger A. Caras
1 cassette                      Nature

q RC 612  The Forest, by Roger A. Caras
1 cassette Nature

q RC 613  Forty Years Against the Tide:  Congress and the Welfare State, by Senator Carl T. Curtis
3 cassettes         Autobiography

q RC 614  Something Beautiful, by Linda Light Strasheim
1 cassette         Autobiography

q RC 621  Stumbling to South Dakota:  A True Life Adventure, by John M. Amen
1 cassette         Motorcycling

q RC 622  Sports Illustrated Presents:  Champions Again; Nebraska 1995, by Sports Illustrated
1 cassette         Football

q RC 623  Bess Streeter Aldrich: The Dreams Are All Real, by Carol Miles Peterson
2 cassettes Biography

q RC 624  Once Upon a Pew, by Ken Alley
1 cassette         Church humor

q RC 625  Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering, edited by Hal Cannon
1 cassette         Poetry

q RC 626  Lucretia Ann on the Oregon Trail, by Ruth Gibson Plowhead
1 cassette          Pioneer story for grades 4 to 7

q RC 627  Plain Enemies:  Best True Stories of the Frontier, by Bob Scott
2 cassettes          Pioneer stories.   Contains some violence.

Order Form and Mailing Instructions

Use pages 7 and 8 to mark the books and magazines you wish to order, then put the page into an envelope and mail it to the Nebraska Library Commission Talking Book & Braille Service, 1200 N Street, Suite #120, The Atrium, Lincoln, NE 68508-2023.

Interchange is published bimonthly by the Nebraska Library Commission Talking Book and Braille Service, 1200 N St., Suite 120, Lincoln, NE 68508-2023. Phone 402-471-4038 or 800-742-7691 (in Nebraska only). Email. Preparation of this newsletter was supported in part by funds allocated through the Library Services and Technology Act administered by the United States Institute of Museum and Library Services.